The FBI Is Reviewing Hillary Clinton’s Emails Again (UPDATED)

Nearly four months after the FBI announced it would not press criminal against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State, FBI Director James Comey wrote in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee on Friday that, in the examination of an unrelated case, the investigative bureau learned of the existence of additional emails that may be relevant to the previous investigation and will review them to determine if they contain any classified materials.

"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation," Comey wrote. "I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."

According to the New York Times, the new emails were discovered by FBI officials after seizing phones from top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner as part of an investigation into Weiner's alleged sexually explicit contact with an underage girl.

In the brief letter, Comey said that the FBI "cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant" and "cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work."

The latest news about Hillary Clinton's emails comes less than two weeks before the presidential election, with Clinton currently leading in the polls. Republican nominee Donald Trump was quick to comment on the news, telling supporters at an event in New Hampshire, “I have great respect that the FBI and Department of Justice have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood.”

His campaign surrogates, as well as Republican leaders, jumped at this latest development in the ongoing Clinton email saga, with Kellyanne Conway writing on Twitter, "A great day in our campaign just got even better,” and House Speaker Paul Ryan releasing a statement saying, "This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators."

On Friday afternoon, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta released a statement imploring Director Comey to release further information about the emails and the FBI's review of them, saying, in full:

"Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI
Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward
with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call. In
the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been
baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private,
browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in
a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

"FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public
more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight
Republican committee chairmen. Already, we have seen characterizations
that the FBI is 'reopening' an investigation but Comey's words do not
match that characterization. Director Comey's letter refers to emails
that have come to light in an unrelated cased, but we have no idea
what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even
be significant.

"It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11
days out from a presidential election.

"The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide
the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this
will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI
reached in July."